CHICAGO – Jim Parque, a former pitcher for the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays, said he used human growth hormone “about six times” after he was cut by Chicago in 2002 and before he tried a comeback with the Rays the following season.

Parque, a former UCLA standout, made his confession in a lengthy, first-person account printed Thursday in the Chicago Sun-Times. He said he tried HGH in a bid to recover from a shoulder injury that he blames for derailing his career.

“It never gave me more strength or bulked me up, but it provided quicker recoveries,” Parque wrote. “I began to throw harder because my shoulder felt no pain. I was able to withstand more throwing, creating a work environment that I had not experienced in two years.”

Parque made five starts for Tampa Bay in 2003, compiling an 11.94 ERA. He never pitched again in the majors. In 2007, he was named as a drug user in the Mitchell Report.

A left-handed pitcher with a 31-34 career record who never made big money, Parque said he sustained a torn labrum during the 2000 playoffs and, after exhausting every other possible remedy, turned to HGH in an attempt to save his career.

“I know that in admitting to this, I am a cheater, a villain and nothing more than a drug user in the eyes of the media and some fans,” Parque wrote. “What was I going to do? I had no job skills, no experience in the real world. … The father in me was racing to find an alternative in an effort to provide for my family.”

He also said he was able to justify his actions because while HGH “was controversial and unethical,” it wasn’t banned by Major League Baseball at the time.

White Sox captain Paul Konerko, who played four seasons with Parque, said he doesn’t condone what his former teammate did but understands why he did it.

“I can see if you put it all into context and you’re dealing with a time where it was prevalent and there were no repercussions and there was nothing stopping you from doing that, you can easily see how it all unfolds,” Konerko said. “If you put yourself in that situation, you can see his thought process on it.”